TIME THIEF
TEN TIPS FOR DEFEATING THE
In This IssueThink Twice Before Hiring Based on Skills
Nondiscretionary Incentive Payments Under the New FLSA OT Rule
In Recruiting, “ROI” Means “Return on Impression”
& More…
JULY/AUGUST 2016
HR INSIGHTSf rom the eyes of industry leadersMagazine
One key to success is having the tools and information you need to get the job done. But it’s not just a matter of the critical elements falling into place all by themselves: you have to know how to use what you have—and how to get what you need but don’t have yet. This edition of Imprimis Group HR Insights tackles those issues head on. Time is perhaps the most valuable asset an individual can possess, but most of us have trouble managing it efficiently, especially in the workplace. In this issue’s feature article, “10 Tips for Defeating the Time Thief,” Valerie Grubb outlines how to measure, evaluate, and reallocate how we spend our time on work, and presents a step-by-step plan that can help employees at all organizational levels and in any industry use their time better. People are at the top of the list of assets that are critical to a company’s success—after all, without people to make products and provide services (and sell both), organizations can’t exist. Karl Wierzbicki, in “In Recruiting, ROI Means Return on Impression,” underscores how important it is for a company to put its best foot forward (specifically, in its candidate experience) if it wants to attract top talent. And when your company brings new people on board, be sure to tell them why you hired them. As Sharlyn Lauby points out in “Why Were You Hired?” when organizations and employees share their reasons for working together, they build a trust-based relationship that benefits both parties. In all cases, it’s critical to know what your priorities are. “Think about what adjustments you need to make so you can focus on what
really matters,” urges Grubb in the feature article. Once you know what you need, you can then figure out how to accomplish it. If your organization needs help identifying its needs, let us know—we’d love to help you chart a course toward your future success.
Best regards,
Valerie FreemanCEOImprimis Group, Inc.
FROM THECEOAs soon as
you open your mind
to doing things
differently, the doors of opportunity
practically fly off their
hinges.
—JAY
ABRAHAM
J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 62
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
4 Cover Story 10 Tips for Defeating the Time Thief
By Valerie Grubb
8 What if the Robot Apocalypse Was More Like a Robot Utopia? By Megan Purdy
Compliance10 Handling Nondiscretionary Incentive Payments Under the
New FLSA Overtime Rule By Michael S. Arnold and Jillian Collins
Workforce Management12 In Recruiting, “ROI” Means “Return on Impression”
By Karl Wierzbicki
14 Do You Know Why You Were Hired? By Sharlyn Lauby
16 The Difference Between Job Descriptions and Job Postings By Linda Brenner
18 Think Twice Before Hiring Based on Skills By Lynda Spiegel
20 Defining Success By Carlos Escobar
Ask the Expert21 Is it Bad to be Reactive?
How Can I Incorporate Career Development Into Someone’s Job? By Strategic Human Resources, Inc.
Water Cooler Chronicles22 Loyalty is a Two-Way Street
By Mike McKerns, SPHR
Recipe of the Month22 Grilled Corm
HR INSIGHTS 3
TEN TIPS FOR
DEFEATING THE
TIME THIEF
Publisher & EDITORIAL DIRECTORS
Mamu Media, LLC
Editor in Chief Mike McKerns
Managing Editor Addy Fillman
Contributing Editor Marsha Brofka-Berends
Associate Editor Lindsay Brockway
director of Sales Robert S. Herbein III
Contributing Writers
Michael S. Arnold
Linda Brenner
Jillian Collins
Carlos Escobar
Valerie Grubb
Sharlyn Lauby
Megan Purdy
Lynda Spiegel
Strategic Human Resources, Inc.
Karl Wierzbicki
Design
The Office of Kristian Bjørnard
HR INSIGHTSf rom the eyes of industry leaders
J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 64
TEN TIPS FOR
DEFEATING THE
TIME THIEF
At my onsite project-management training sessions, I frequently hear the same question: “How can I fit it all in—that is, how can I manage multiple projects while also juggling my day-to-day job?” That is a tough question to address. We’re all being asked to do more and more every day, but at the same time we must deal with the increasing numbers of distractions that eat into the precious time we have to get stuff done.
BY VALERIE GRUBB
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to squeeze more time out of the day. But it is possible to learn to use the time you do have more wisely. Start by dividing your day into chunks of time for accomplishing three vital tasks:
· Doing (keeping up with the projects currently on your plate) · Attending meetings and conference calls · Strategizing (planning future projects and goals)Everyone spends his or her time differently on each of those three
tasks: one person might need five hours each day for “doing,” whereas someone else might need five hours each day for “strategizing.” If you want to gain control over your own schedule, you need to figure out what allocations work best for you.
In many companies, unfortunately, meetings take up the majority of the workday and leave employees with little or no time for think-ing, let alone doing. If you’re in that boat, try to extricate yourself from those meetings in which you’re not central to the topic being discussed or those that are merely update meetings that could be handled more efficiently via e-mail (or other method). Insist that meeting organizers send out agendas ahead of time so you’ll know whether your in-person attendance is absolutely necessary. Is there someone with whom you could trade off attendance and then share notes afterward?
HR INSIGHTS 5
Before you can plan your time, though, you need to know how you’re using it now. So keep a log (in your Outlook calendar, for example, or in a notebook) that documents what you’ve worked on throughout each day. Be specific and precise (and honest!) and leave nothing out. In addition to time spent working on projects and attending meetings, include time spent chatting with coworkers and dealing with e-mail and other routine office functions.
Keep this record for a week and tally your numbers daily to get a clear picture of how you spend your time, including how much you spend on noncritical activities. Think about what adjustments you need to make so you can focus on what really matters. Then follow these steps to plan your day more efficiently:
PLAN YOUR WORK, AND THEN WORK YOUR PLANSpend the first 30 minutes of every day putting together a realistic plan of what you’re going to accomplish that day. The keyword here is “realistic”: if you list 10 tasks and get only half of them done, you’ll be disappointed in yourself. But if you schedule five and finish all of them, you can celebrate your victory over the time thief!
BOOK APPOINTMENTS IN YOUR CALENDAROnce you know what you’re going to focus on that day, schedule your time. Put meetings in your calendar and label each with the task you’ll focus on during that time period. (Consider booking the more challenging tasks for the time of day when you’re at your peak.) Once you’ve laid out your plan, stick to it.
DON’T CHECK E-MAIL CONTINUALLYResponding to e-mail can be one of the big-gest time-drains on the planet and can easily prevent you from doing actual work. So first thing in the morning, scan your inbox for any critical messages (such as a note from your boss), then let the rest wait until later in the day, after you’ve accomplished some “do-ing” and “strategizing” and need a break from big, meaty projects.
DON’T DO EASY TASKS JUST TO CHECK THEM OFF YOUR LISTAfter e-mail, this is one of the biggest time wasters around. If you put together a plan for the day and put one small item in the sched-ule because it’s a quick task, you can actually undermine your time-management efforts because taking care of the “quick task” then becomes a habit that cuts into your time for the truly important stuff. So instead, book an appointment in your schedule for “small stuff” to help you remember that everything takes time—and if you’re not spending enough time on larger initiatives, you’ll always be falling behind.
DON’T SCHEDULE ROUTINE MEETINGSTo ensure that your meetings are produc-tive for all involved, make sure that they all have a purpose beyond checking in on the status of assigned work and are scheduled only at key decision points or when in-person discussion is needed for a project to continue moving forward. And always create (and share in advance) an agenda to help everyone stay on track.
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ONLY ATTEND ESSENTIAL MEETINGSDon’t let meetings consume your day! Insist on an agenda—and make sure it states where your specific contributions are needed.
REVIEW LESSONS LEARNED EACH DAYPersonal reflection at the end of each day will help you plan for a better tomorrow. If you’re not happy with how the day went, identify those things that pulled you away from your plan and devise a strategy for not letting that happen the next day. If you’re happy with how your day went, figure out why it was successful and make sure you continue those practices moving forward.
JETTISON NONCRITICAL ACTIVITIESThe Pareto Principle holds that 20% of a person’s effort leads to 80% of his or her results. So figure out which efforts are criti-cal to your function, then ditch the activi-ties that aren’t moving you or the company forward. Be ruthless in your evaluation of what is critical—don’t let yourself be tricked into focusing on smaller tasks that can be accomplished in less time and therefore give you a false sense of accomplishment. If something isn’t mission critical, put it on hold until later!
GET BACK ON TRACKIf you find your mind wandering (and, say, you “happen” to log into Instagram), stop, review the schedule you created at the start of the day, then refocus on the task at hand. Self-discipline is definitely your most powerful tool against wasting time and not accomplishing goals.
REWARD YOUR SUCCESSOne popular management axiom states, “You get what you reward.” That’s true when managing anyone—in-cluding ourselves. So build into your schedule a treat (for example, a trip to the movie theater, a massage, or even something as simple as an indulgent dessert from the corner bakery) you can enjoy when you’ve accomplished the tasks or projects you set out for yourself.
Gaining control of your schedule takes rigorous self-discipline on your part. But it’s definitely doable! And the best part is that if you practice this sort of time management long enough, it will become a habit. When you’re no longer even thinking about it, that’s when you’ll know that you’ve defeated the time thief!
Valerie Grubb of Val Grubb & Associates Ltd. is an innovative and visionary operations leader with an exceptional ability to zero in on the systems, process-es, and personnel issues that can hamper a company’s growth. Grubb regularly consults for mid-range companies wishing to expand and larger companies seeking efficiencies in back-office operations. Her ex-pertise and vibrant style are also in constant demand for corporate training classes and seminars. Her first book, Planes, Canes, and Automobiles: Connecting with Your Aging Parents through Travel was published in October 2015. She can be reached at [email protected].
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HR INSIGHTS 7
ROBOTS AND AIs DESTROY AND CREATE JOBS
Mynul Khan, the CEO of one firm that specializes in IT staffing, re-cently described how for centuries new technologies have disrupted industries, eliminated jobs, and then eventually created new jobs. For example, the Industrial Revolution resulted in the mass migration of workers from the country to the city, the disruption of agriculture and the textile industries, and social unrest—but increased mecha-nization also led to the creation of new industries. Kuhn sees that pattern continuing with future developments in the use of AIs and automation, citing a 2011 International Federation of Robotics study on the positive impact of robots:
[The] study found that one million industrial robots directly created nearly three million jobs. Of the six countries examined in the study, five saw their unemployment rates go down as the number of robots used went up.1
That sounds great, right? Just as they have a great potential to eliminate jobs, robots also have a tremendous potential to create jobs. For example, one economist, Jeffrey Dorfman, points out how even though the segment of the population employed in agriculture dropped from 84% in 1810 to only 1% today, thanks to the introduc-tion of new farming technologies,
. . . somehow, this enormous outflow of jobs from agriculture did not lead to mass unemploy-ment. That 83 percent of the workforce that got displaced found new jobs. Many of the jobs those leaving agriculture took in 1900 or 1950 were jobs that did not exist long before the jobs in agriculture disappeared. Some people even have jobs building, selling, and repairing the ma-chines that replaced those agricultural workers.2
But although overall employment didn’t decline, this was not a simple case of workers responding to changes in the market, being retrained, and finding new work. The move from agriculture to indus-trial and service employment was not a smooth one-to-one exchange
The ECONOMY of the FUTURE:
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the downsides to the expanded role of robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning at work and in the marketplace. But there are upsides to it, too. For example, in manufacturing and agriculture, robots have both eliminated jobs and created new ones. In the service industry, robots and AIs have eliminated some frontline jobs, but the growing use of automation has also made hands-on “good service” (provided by humans) more attractive than ever. Similarly, in corporate offices, research and secretarial work have changed (and in some cases vanished) thanks to automation, but at the same time new roles for IT and developers have appeared. This transformation is happening all over the world, and no one knows for sure where it will lead.
Robot
Apoca-
lypse
J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 68
BY MEGAN PURDY
of one kind of work for another. Today, many people who might have worked on farms if they had been born 100 years earlier are instead engaged in other work. But as much as agriculture proves that the march of technology creates new jobs, it also proves the potential for robots to completely eliminate large sectors of work in the long run.
The case of agriculture, though, is complicated by the industry’s reliance on undocumented workers—a dependency that has helped create a situation in which only low-paying, unskilled labor is avail-able to supplement combines and other farm machinery. For this reason and others, using agriculture as an example of how technology has created tons of new jobs or completely eliminated work does not necessarily provide findings that can be extrapolated to apply to other industries.
Another economist, Tim Worstall, takes issue with arguments (like Dorfman’s) that claim that automation’s destruction of old jobs actually leads to the creation of new ones:
The robots do not create new jobs themselves. They free us humans to go do things that were not being done before and that is why automa-tion makes us richer, because now those things that were not being done are being done and we’re richer by whatever value we put on having them done.1
Consider the case of manufacturing. Since the 1970s, the manu-facturing segment of the US economy has shrunk dramatically (and is still decreasing), yet the overall unemployment rate hasn’t risen by the same amount. Did automation move all those workers into bet-ter paying, more satisfying work? Although it created more growth and more economic prosperity overall, it was a disaster for many individual workers in that sector. True, employment reduction in ag-riculture, manufacturing, and, in recent years, the fossil-fuels–based energy sector has been accompanied by employment increases in technology, medicine, and service sector. It’s worth noting, however, that only one of those growth areas has jobs that are easy to switch into without years of training.
THE TRANSFORMATION WILL BE BIG—
AND IT WON’T BE EASY
Robots and AIs won’t make all human workers obsolete, but they will radically transform every industry and create new fields of work and study. Nothing about this change will be easy or painless, unfortu-nately. Along the way millions of Americans will be unemployed and thousands of companies will struggle to keep up with the pace of technological change, and many experts predict that the scope of change over the next 50 years will be on a scale similar to that of the Industrial Revolution. And that’s worth worrying about.
Khan says that the Luddites, the English textile workers who sabotaged the machinery that was replacing them in the early 19th century, exemplify the futility of opposing technological advances. The Luddites’ fears weren’t unfounded: now highly automated, the textile industry still exists but it includes very few workers who do weaving by hand. Although the general economy as a whole recov-ered from and thrived after the disruptive period of technological innovation, individual workers experienced a variety of outcomes: some lost everything, whereas others gained much.
The long-term effects that today’s new technologies will have on workers and the marketplace aren’t yet defined. As those technolo-gies both eliminate jobs and create new ones, they will both make our lives easier and introduce social and economic unrest. We can’t even begin to predict the ensuing complications.
Megan Purdy is a former recruiter and now a full-time writer and editor. She is the managing editor of Blogging4Jobs.com.
1. Mynul Khan. “Robots Won’t Just Take Jobs, They’ll Create Them.” TechCrunch. May 13, 2016. http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/13/robots-wont-just-take-jobs-theyll-create-them/.
2. Jeffrey Dorfman. “Agriculture Proves Robots Won’t Take All Our Jobs.” Forbes online. May 15, 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2016/05/15/robots-may-take-some-jobs-but-we-will-create-new-ones/#f5a958e76782.
3. Tim Worstall. “No, the Robots Do Not Create the Same Number of Jobs They Destroy.” Forbes online. April 26, 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/04/26/no-the-robots-do-not-create-the-same-number-of-jobs-they-destroy/#797742765c18.
The ECONOMY of the FUTURE:
or
Robot Utopia?
© M
aksymM
/ Bigstock.com
HR INSIGHTS 9
HANDLING Nondiscretionary Incentive Payments
U nder th e N ew
FLSA OVERTIME RULE
In one of the few “wins” for employers in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) new overtime rule, which was announced by the Department of Labor on May 18 and expands overtime eligibility for millions of American workers, employers are now allowed to apply “nondiscretionary incentive payments” to meet up to 10% of the new salary threshold. This change could prove very important to employers who pay employees on a commission basis or who use other incentive-based compensation. But what qualifies as a nondiscretionary incentive payment? What options do employers have for changing their compensation plans to ensure compliance with the new rule? And what could be the unintended consequences of those changes?
BY MICHAEL ARNOLD AND JILL COLLINS
© N
atee Meepian / B
igstock.com
COMPLIANCE
J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 610
WHAT DOES THE RULE SAY ABOUT NONDISCRETIONARY INCENTIVE PAYMENTS?The new rule allows nondiscretionary incentive bonuses tied to productivity or profitability (such as a bonus based on the specified percentage of the profits generated by a business in the prior quarter) to be counted toward up to 10% of the salary threshold for white-collar workers (or up to $1,186.90 per quarter). To credit nondiscre-tionary incentive payments toward a portion of the standard salary level test, the payments must be paid on at least a quarterly basis. The rule also permits the employer to make a “catch up” payment to maintain the exemption if in a given quarter an employee does not receive enough in nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments to remain exempt.
Notably, the rule does not allow employers to use nondiscretion-ary incentive payments toward meeting the weekly salary threshold for highly compensated employees (HCE) (i.e., those who are exempt because they make at least $134,004 annually). However, employers may continue to count bonuses, commissions, and other nondiscre-tionary compensation paid at least annually to the total annual HCE threshold.
WHAT DOES “NONDISCRETIONARY” MEAN?Previous FLSA regulations related to the salary basis test did not allow employers to count any bonus payments, commissions, or other incentive payments toward the weekly salary threshold. But other portions of the regulations relating to calculating overtime payments refer to discretionary compensation as payments that are determined at the sole discretion of the employer and are not pursuant to any prior contract, agreement, or promise causing the employee to expect such payments regularly.
The FAQ on the new rule states that nondiscretionary incentive payments are forms of compensation promised to employees to induce them to work more efficiently or to remain with the company; examples include bonuses for meeting set production goals, reten-tion bonuses, and commission payments based on a fixed formula. Discretionary bonuses, on the other hand, are those awarded solely at the employer’s sole discretion and not in accordance with any prean-nounced standards.
Although the standard seems fairly straightforward, there are a number of key issues for employers to consider:
· Many employers with seemingly nondiscretionary bonus plans that, for example, pay quarterly or monthly production bonuses also include language that the payment is payable to employees in “good standing,” with the employer having the sole discretion to determine whether an employee is in good standing. This type of language in a bonus plan could prevent an employer from ap-plying such a bonus to the salary threshold because the employer retains ultimate discretion over whether the employee earned the bonus.
· Bonus plans that contain performance milestones that are not objectively achievable may also be considered discretionary if there would be a dispute between an employee and employer about when the milestone was achieved (and when the bonus was earned).
· Similarly, commission plans under which an employer reserves the right to determine at its discretion the appropriate split between two sales employees could be problematic under the new
rule, because the employer is exerting discretion as to the amount of the commission to which each employee would be entitled.
· Commission plans under which an employer retains the right to refuse or reject any order or source of revenue could arguably be considered discretionary. Employers should craft the language to specifically define the instances in which an order may be rejected in order to count the commissions under such a plan toward the salary threshold.
WHAT SHOULD EMPLOYERS DO NEXT?In order to apply nondiscretionary incentive payments toward the salary threshold, employers should consider the following:
· Ensure that bonus and commission plans clearly state the require-ments for earning the incentive compensation and minimize any employer discretion involved in determining payouts.
· Where employers would otherwise be able to exercise discretion, provide clear definitions of how an employer would make deci-sions under the plan.
· Clarify that the payments will be made on at least a quarterly basis.
· Provide that if the employee makes less than a minimum antici-pated threshold in any given quarter, the employer will make a
“catch up” payment to the employee.
BEWARE OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCESKeep in mind, though, that taking away the employer’s discretion in compensation can have unintended consequences. Nondiscretion-ary bonus or incentive payments made to nonexempt employees must be included in the regular rate when calculating overtime pay, so employers must be sure that their employees are classified properly, including under applicable ‘exemptions’ and separate job duties test. This point is important because if an employer misclassifies an employee and is later sued successfully, then it could owe even more in overtime damages, because the nondiscretionary compensation would be included when calculating the regular rate for overtime. Employers then should consider whether the rewards that nondis-cretionary incentive-based compensation may provide outweigh the risks of getting wrong an on-the-line exemption decision. Also, remember that although only a small portion of nondiscretionary in-centive compensation counts toward the threshold (less than $4,750 per year), all nondiscretionary payments count when calculating the amount of unpaid overtime.
Michael Arnold is a member in the New York office of Mintz Levin. He advises clients on complex employment litigation matters and on arbitrations and media-tions related to wage and hour, discrimination, noncompete, trade secret, general contract disputes, and other employee-related disputes.
Jill Collins is an associate in the Washington, DC, office of Mintz Levin. She represents clients involved in litigation of federal and state employment disputes and counsels clients on labor and employment issues.
Visit them online at www.mintz.com.
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HR INSIGHTS 11
CONSIDER THIS SCENARIO:—You’re new in town and need to find a new doctor, so you call the office of a local MD. At your first appoint-ment (three weeks later is the soonest the doctor can see you) the receptionist is rude, you have to wait for more than an hour beyond your appointment time, and, once you finally get into the exam room, the doctor rushes through the appointment without making eye contact with you. When you describe your frustration to a coworker, she suggests you try her physician. The experience couldn’t be more different: pleasant staff, a next-day appointment, and, most importantly, a doctor who takes the time to get to know you and your medi-cal history in an unhurried, approachable manner.
Which doctor do you choose?
H er e’s a noth er on e:— Every morning you pick up a cup of coffee at the company cafeteria. Monday’s server takes your order, sells you coffee, and moves on to the next customer. Tuesday’s server greets you with a big smile, asks about the big proposal you were working on last week, and makes your usual drink without having to ask how you like it.
Which day has a better start for you?
The difference between an exceptional doctor and an average doctor (and between an exceptional server and average server) lies in the experiences of the people with whom they interact. Anyone who feels that kind of difference even once has no doubt which option he or she prefers. That’s an important thing to keep in mind in all business-oriented interactions—including recruiting.
Whether you rely on a stand-alone applicant
tracking system (ATS), lean heavily on
mobile recruiting, work with legacy HCM
software, or use some combination of
those strategies, you have only a few
seconds to make a first impression with
applicants. Your ATS may well be the
applicants’ first exposure to your company,
and they will assume that the candidate
experience you create there reflects the
culture, professionalism, and quality of your
organization. And if applying through your
ATS is an unfriendly, bureaucratic, and
kludgy process, you may not see those
applicants again.
In Recruiting,
ROI M E A N S
Return On Impression BY KARL WIERZBICKI
WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT
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Karl Wierzbicki of InFlight Corporation (www.inflightintegration.com) has 14 years of experience driving exceptional ROI (both kinds) through innovative solutions and user-centric technologies.
1. Indeed.com. 2015. “5 Tips for Attracting Great Candidates to Your Jobs.” http://offers.indeed.com/rs/indeed/images/ebook-5-tips-for-attracting-great-candidates.pdf.
2. Indeed.com blog. 2014. “78% of Candidates Would Apply to Jobs From Mo-bile.” http://blog.indeed.com/2014/09/18/78-of-candidates-would-apply-to-jobs-from-mobile/.
When job applicants come across an excel-lent candidate experience, they know they’re applying to an excellent company: a company that respects their time, recognizes their talent, and anticipates their needs. So create the kind of candidate experience your applicants will ap-preciate (and tell their friends about). Maximize your “return on impression” by implementing a beautiful, modern user interface that integrates seamlessly to mobile platforms (where the tal-ent is!). Streamline the search and application process, reducing the number of clicks and steps required to apply.
You adopted technology to help you find and hire the best talent. Don’t let the changing needs of today’s candidates turn that technology into an obstacle. With full functionality across all formats and the simple, responsive, and con-temporary user experience that applicants prefer, your ATS can help your organization make a great first impression.
The interesting thing about A-list talent is that they know who they are and they know they have a choice. If the pro-cess of applying for a position through your career website is irritating and laborious, or if your ATS makes them jump through too many hoops, they will abandon you and find a
“better” company to work for.Losing your best candidates is the true cost of a low
“return on impression.” So if you want to attract the best and the brightest, you need to improve that first impression by ensuring that your candidate experience is the best it can be.
· Make it fast and efficient: simplify the process, remove duplication of effort, and eliminate unnecessary ques-tions. (According to one survey, “asking 30 screener questions reduces the number of applications by half. Asking 45 screener questions reduces applications by 90%.”1)
· Deliver a modern user experience that meets—or ex-ceeds—candidate expectations.
· Make sure your ATS works well on mobile devices. Al-though about two-thirds of job seekers use their mobile devices to search for jobs, many don’t apply via that route because they find it too complicated. That’s a huge loss of potential candidates, because “78% of people in the US would apply to jobs on their mobile devices if the process were simplified.”2
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If organizations want employees to be engaged and succeed in their roles, they have to tell their employees why they were hired—not what they were hired to do, but why they in particular were chosen over anyone else. Hiring managers need to have an intentional, planned conversation with each new employee that explains the following:
· what experiences made his or her resume stand out · what knowledge, skills, and abilities the company found impressive · what the candidate said during the interview process that set him or her apart
from everyone else
Such conversations set new hires up for success by giving them critical infor-mation that can help them do well at their jobs. It’s important for new employees to know what their companies saw in them and responded well to during the interviews. This knowledge not only gives the new employees confidence, but it also tells them which of their strengths to leverage in order to communicate well and succeed within the organization.
These conversations shouldn’t be one-sided, though. Just as hiring managers reveal the reasons behind their hiring decisions, employees should communicate why they accepted the offers to join their organizations. When scheduling this one-on-one session with the new employee, the hiring manager should let him or her know that the company would like to learn
· What about the company made the new employee apply there? · What things said during the interview process really impressed him or her? · What aspects of company culture really stood out during the hiring process?
“Why did my organization hire me?” That’s a simple question, but unfortunately it’s one that most people can’t answer. At one of my previous jobs, my boss took me out to lunch one day to tell me I was hired because I didn’t come from the industry and the organization needed an outsider who would ask questions and challenge the status quo. Not all companies are so forthcoming with their employees, though.
© D
eath to the Stock photo
WHY WERE YOU HIRED? BY SHARLYN LAUBY
WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT
J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 614
Just imagine what this kind of conversation could tell an organization about its hiring processes! A company could discover which elements of its employment brand appeal to candidates, how they perceive the interview process, and what closes the deal when it comes to convincing them to accept jobs offers.
Positive working relationships start with building trust between managers and new employees. Ideally, an open and honest conversation about why someone was hired and why he or she accepted the offer should go beyond the manager saying, “We hired you because we could afford your salary” and the employee say-ing, “I came to work here because this was the only company that called me back.” Instead, it’s far more useful and effective to have a conversation in which the manager says, “I want you to be successful with us, so let me share with you what impressed me during the hiring process” and the employee says, “I really liked that the company offered X, and I appreciated your comments about Y.”
If having a formal conversation with employees about why they were hired isn’t already a part of your organization’s onboarding program, perhaps it’s time to adjust your onboarding process. An open conversation in which managers explain their hiring decisions and employees discuss what drew them to their organizations can lay the foundation for workplace success.
Sharlyn Lauby is the author of HR Bartender (www.hrbartender.com), a friendly place to discuss workplace issues. When not tend-ing bar, she is president of ITM Group, Inc., which specializes in training solutions to help clients retain and engage talent. She can be contacted on Twitter at @HRBartender.
WHY WERE YOU HIRED? BY SHARLYN LAUBY
HR INSIGHTS 15
Using a job description in place of a job posting is one of the biggest gaffes that recruiters can make. Although the two types of text may seem similar on the surface, there is actually a world of difference between them. But with a good understanding of each, hiring managers and staffers can improve the speed and quality of their hiring.
WHAT IS A JOB DESCRIPTION?A job description is an internal company document used to outline a role’s responsibilities and requirements related to knowledge, skills, abilities, and standards of performance. It also covers aspects of the job necessary to ensure equitable compensation and legal compliance. Typically, a job descrip-tion is fact oriented, uses lots of industry-specific language, and is intended only for internal use—not for candidate consumption.
In reality though, job descriptions are often inaccurate, outdated, and underutilized—all compelling reasons not to use them for advertising open roles. Why do job descrip-tions have these problems? For starters, it’s nearly impossible for organizations to keep all job descriptions updated at all times. They’re often at least a few years old and barely relate to the current reality of the roles they’re supposed to de-scribe. In fact, it could be argued that it’s hardly worth the ef-fort to try to keep job descriptions up to date, given the pace at which companies, leaders, strategies, and roles change.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
JOB DESCRIPTIONS
JOB POSTINGS
AND
WHAT IS A JOB POSTING?The employment website Monster compares a job posting to a typical product advertisement: it highlights the product’s best features but doesn’t list all of its technical elements.1 Although those details are relevant and important to the person who ultimately purchases the product, they can in-terfere with initial buyer engagement. Because the ultimate objective of the job posting is to first engage the reader and then to inspire him or her to express interest in a position, the job posting’s main function is to provide a compelling overview of the job and the company culture (and save the details for later).
BY LINDA BRENNER
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BEST PRACTICES FOR JOB POSTINGSAn effective job posting culls the most important respon-sibilities, competencies, and qualifications from the job description and surrounds this information with a compel-ling description of the company and the department. An effective job posting is also peppered with SEO keywords to ensure that it appears in relevant candidate searches. Details about the job requirements are crucial in a job posting, and candidates recognize this need as well: 77.3% of respondents in a Jobvite survey ranked “job descriptions” as the “most useful employment content.”2
Above all, the best job posting appeals to its targeted candidates and is written with them in mind. To distinguish a job from similar roles at other companies, the posting must highlight the job’s most important and differentiating ben-efits. It should also point out features of the company itself that could appeal to the target candidates. Most applicant tracking systems make it easy to incorporate employment branding in job postings by allowing the flexible use of head-er and closer templates for different divisions, departments, and role types within a company, thus freeing recruiters from the need to create new text for those sections each time.
Together, job descriptions and job postings help increase quality of hire by providing engaging and accurate informa-tion. In this way, the right candidates opt in and the wrong candidates self-select out. When it comes to hiring, the com-pany succeeds not by satisfying nebulous legal requirements but when it garners the best talent for the role.
Linda Brenner started Talent Growth Advisors (formerly Designs on Talent) with the vision of helping HR leaders drive faster and better re-sults in talent acquisition and talent management. Visit them online at www.talentgrowthadvisors.com or contact Brenner by e-mail at [email protected].
1. “How do job descriptions differ from job adverts?” Monster.com. Undated. http://hiring.monster.co.uk/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/attracting-job-candidates/how-do-job-descriptions-differ-from-job-adverts.aspx.
2. Kimberly Kasper. “The Candidate Experience Infographic.” Job-vite website. September 15, 2014. http://www.jobvite.com/blog/candidate-experience-infographic/.
SO WHY DO COMPANIES USE JOB DESCRIPTIONS AS JOB POSTINGS?When recruiters are under the gun or overworked, they’ll of-ten do whatever it takes to get requisitions up and positions filled as quickly as possible. So when hiring managers have to create their own job postings as part of the requisition creation, a job description cut-and-paste job is almost always the outcome. And when hiring managers won’t make the time to discuss the job with the recruiter, the job description might very well be the best (or even only) information that a recruiter has on hand.
Job descriptions also get used as job postings because recruiters assume they are required to do so. In many of my company’s recruiting audit engagements with companies, recruiters have claimed that a rule from “legal” or “the HR leader” or the “compliance team” states that job descrip-tions must be used as job postings. Upon closer inspection, though, it’s almost never been the case that this perceived re-quirement is in fact true. More often than not, this “require-ment” is a piece of folklore passed down from one generation of recruiters or HR generalists to the next.
HR INSIGHTS 17
In the spring of 2015, EY (known as Ernst & Young until 2013) announced that it had decided to remove minimum grade requirements—as well as requirements for the type of degrees considered acceptable—for job candidates in the United Kingdom. An internal study by the elite global professional services firm “found no evidence to conclude that previous success in higher education correlated with future success in subsequent professional qualifications undertaken.”1
In other words, they recognize that just because a candidate was great at being a student doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she will thrive in and contribute to a fast-paced, innovative business culture.
It’s nice to see Fortune 500 companies getting on board with what the tech world and entrepreneurs have long known: it may be better to hire people who have experience beyond just racking up an impres-sive GPA.
Think Twice Before Hiring Based on SkillsBY LYNDA SPIEGEL
DO YOU HIRE FOR TALENT OR FOR SKILLS?Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Rachel Ray, and Richard Branson are all world-famous entrepreneurs who have succeeded without having university degrees. In the long run, their lack of academic credentials didn’t stop them from achieving their goals. However, it’s easy to dismiss the need for a degree when evaluat-ing the careers of multimillionaires (or even billionaires) who have already proven themselves.
But what would happen if companies extended such respect to “regular” employees, too—the ones who aren’t world famous or who don’t run their own companies? What if organizations stopped stig-matizing candidates for having too much experience (read: being too old)? Or for having gaps in employment because they took time off to raise families or care for elderly relatives? Or for having degrees from online institutions with open admissions policies instead of from elite brick-and-mortar schools? In other words, what happens when companies hire for talent rather than for skills?
Aarron Walter, who built and led the MailChimp user experience team until earlier this year, writes that “focusing too much on techni-cal knowhow can lead companies to hire the wrong people.”2 Instead, he says, companies should hire people who exhibit intellectual openness, a collaborative mindset, social aptitude, adaptability, and grit. MailChimp, for example, doesn’t list particular types of software as requirements in its engineering job descriptions; instead it looks for people who get stuff done and with whom others are likely to get along.
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Similarly, serial entrepreneur and current CEO at Drift, David Cancel, notes that in each of his endeavors, “personal traits—not pro-fessional skills—have been what propelled the company forward.”3 He breaks down the qualifications of his ideal candidate: 45% “cultural fit,” 35% “scrappiness and drive,” 15% “intelligence,” and 5% “experi-ence.” Prior knowledge has only a small influence on Cancel’s hiring decisions; talent is by far the most important criteria in his book.
THE FUTURE OF HIRING FOR TALENT AND CULTUREAlthough examples such as these are inspiring, the reality for most job candidates doesn’t follow this trend. Many of today’s job descrip-tions focus more on specific skills than on general talents or traits. For a fairly low-level financial analyst position at a major beauty company, for example, the HR department might want a candidate to have a de-gree in finance or accounting, as well as be able to use SAP Financials, Hyperion, Business Warehouse, and CPM—but have no expecta-tions or preferences about traits, adaptability, or other characteristics that are related more to talent than to skills.
Some companies (such as EY) have developed online assessment tools that measure the traits that are important to them. But although such tools can help organizations step away from relying on grades as a future performance indicator, they might screen out potentially great hires who don’t perform well on multiple-choice tests. And missing out on those hires could have detrimental effects: often the people a company wants and needs the most are the ones who see ambiguity in questions and can construct the “right” answer based on variables that exist in the real world and not just in online assessment tools.
THE BOTTOM-LINE IMPACTIf success is defined in financial terms, then emphasizing traits or cul-ture fit over precise skills might translate very well into organizational success and yield big returns. In fact, several of the organizations on Fortune magazine’s list of top revenue-producing companies in 2015 and on Inc. magazine’s list of more profitable companies in 2015 published job postings that highlighted traits or skills and specified an interest in candidates with tenacity, intelligence, and a sense of camaraderie.
Although hiring for traits doesn’t necessarily correlate to a company’s financial success, there are other benefits to building an employee-centric culture. Companies that hire people with a value system and work ethic in line with the corporate mission will surely succeed with respect to recruitment and retention of their greatest asset—their talent.
This article was originally printed in ReWork, an online magazine sponsored by Cornerstone OnDemand, a leader in cloud-based applications for talent manage-ment that helps organizations recruit, train, manage, and connect their employees. Lynda Spiegel is a contributor to ReWork and the founder of the career coaching company Rising Star Resumes. She can be reached via Twitter at @RisingStarRes.
1. Lucy Sherriff. “ Ernst & Young Removes Degree Classification From Entry Criteria As There’s ‘No Evidence’ University Equals Success.” Huffington Post UK. April 8, 2015.http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/07/ernst-and-young-removes-degree-classi-fication-entry-criteria_n_7932590.html.
2. Aarron Walter. “Hire People, Not Skills.” MailChimp blog. September 9, 2015., https://blog.mailchimp.com/hire-people-not-skills/.
3. David Cancel. “Why I Hire People, Not Skills.” davidcancel.com (blog). Undated. http://davidcancel.com/why-i-hire-people-not-skills.
© olly2
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HR INSIGHTS 19
Defining Success BY CARLOS ESCOBAR
The equation “People + Processes = Success” describes a deceptively simple method for managing work: if companies put the right people in the right places and help them with solid processes, success will automatically result. But anyone who’s had any experience in the business world knows that things just aren’t that easy. Positioning people in the right spots is harder to accomplish than it seems, and even when that’s done properly the processes often leave much to be desired.
THE WORK GETS DONE—BUT AT A PRICEFortunately, organizations usually still suc-ceed even when this equation isn’t implemented perfectly. But what tends to get overlooked is the incredibly hard work that’s needed to overcome any deficiencies in skill (that is, the right people in the right place) or process in the equation.
For example, we make up for a slow system by working late or by deploying more and more resources. To keep our work on track, we push past teammates who aren’t pulling their weight—but also end up taking on their work. As deadlines loom and pressure mounts, the margin of error gets even thinner, and we continue the cycle until the job gets done.
When organizations aren’t fully aware of how these challenges are connected to solving the equa-tion, it’s easy for them to move forward without considering the expense associated with meeting objectives at all costs. Organizations that focus only on a binary definition of success overlook the opportunity cost of operating in this way. Even when they don’t see the effects this approach has on morale or on other initiatives, they still suffer the consequences of those effects. When they do notice the effects, companies often dismiss them by saying, “We don’t have time for that right now.” But when those effects persist and lead to the rise of other issues, organizations are then forced to make time to deal with them.
HOW CAN ORGANIZATIONS IMPROVE?Zero in on the “success” portion of the equa-tion by finding out what worked and what didn’t. Instead of focusing mostly on key players and strategies, cast a wider net during the “lessons learned” process to avoid missing valuable learning
opportunities and to ensure that everyone involved in an initiative or project can contribute to improv-ing it the next time around. Revealing any organi-zational “blind spots” in this manner can make it easier to avoid “success at any cost” efforts in the future. It also allows employees to define success in ways that meet the company’s objectives as well as their own needs.
With that in mind, perhaps it’s time to redefine success. Instead of meaning only that objectives are met, success should also include the following criteria:
· no one is forced to work long hours and weekends
· no one is left alone to finish the job · everyone is supported—and everyone is
accountable · everyone works hard—but smart · the organization doesn’t sacrifice other initia-
tives in the process · the organization learns from its efforts and gets
better and better
There isn’t a lot of wiggle room in the first half of the “People + Processes = Success” equation. After all, imperfection is part of what makes us perfectly human, and processes will always be at odds with the incredibly complex people forced to implement them. Organizations and individuals do, however, have the ability to redefine success to meet their needs.
Carlos Escobar is an HR and organizational development specialist, SHRM volunteer leader, writer, and budding en-trepreneur. With over a decade of experience in leadership, facilitation and talent development, and data and metrics analysis, he enjoys working on collaborative teams to tackle big organizational challenges.
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Career
Development
hand & m
arker: ©iS
tock.com/kyoshino
Q. At times I hear complaints that I am too reactive to situations and that I need to be more strategic in my thinking. But I believe that reactivity is necessary in my job in HR. Who is right?
— A. Both perspectives are valid. As HR specialists we must be able to react
to many different situations that arise throughout each day, and doing so well is how we become respected and admired members of the team. There is a difference, however, between being reactive and making off-the-cuff decisions and being reactive but using knowledge of the organization, its culture, and the situation to come up with solutions. In many instances, those solutions open up opportunities to advance a business case for mak-ing needed changes and moving forward. Reactivity is not necessarily good but it is often necessary. To keep it positive, make sure that your reactions are well thought out and use them to promote change.
Q. My employee asked me to incorporate career development into her job. How can I do that?
— A. Aligning an employee’s career goals with the organization’s goals can in-
crease employee engagement and help both parties achieve their goals. First determine what the employee wants to achieve, then use an assessment tool to measure his or her current skills and strengths and figure out how to in-corporate the top five into his or her current position. Next, find out if your organization has a budget for professional development. If it doesn’t, you can still support your employee’s development through cost-effective op-tions such as cross-training, mentoring, training webinars, and in-service training (to name just a few). Special thanks to Sherry Sims with Black Career Women’s Network for sharing her insight and expertise.
Strategic Human Resources, Inc., is a national full-service HR management firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its president and founder, Robin Throckmorton, can be reached at [email protected].
IS IT BAD TO BE REACTIVE?
&HOW CAN I INCORPORATE CAREER
DEVELOPMENT INTO SOMEONE’S JOB?
BY STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES, INC.
ASK THE EXPERT
HR INSIGHTS 21
LOYALTY IS A TWO-WAY STREET
BY MIKE MCKERNS
WATER COOLER CHRONICLES: GRILLED CORNHot, sun-filled days mark the long-awaited arrival of corn season. After months of enduring flavorless corn that’s been picked before it’s ripe and shipped halfway around the world to our supermarkets, the nation is eager to dig in to corn that’s locally grown and harvested at the peak of flavor. Armed with tons of butter, plenty of napkins, and perhaps some of those little plastic cob holders with spikes on them, millions of people are ready to celebrate summer with freshly boiled corn on the cob. If you’re one of those people, I have some news for you: there is a better way. If you want to maximize the intense flavor and sweetness of just-picked corn on the cob, your best bet is not to boil it but to grill it over high heat, a method that caramelizes some of the corn’s natural sugar and lets the brightest corn flavor shine through. Once you’ve tried grilled corn, you may never go back!
Yield: 6 servings Time: about 90 minutes
NUTRITIONAL INFO PER SERVING: Calories: 125 cal
Fat: 1 g
Dietary fiber: 3 g
Sugars: 5 g
Protein: 4 g
What you’ll need:6 ears of freshly picked corn on the cob, husks and silks still attachedbutter (optional)salt and pepper (optional)
Directions:1. Preheat your grill.2. Put the corn cobs in enough cold water to cover them; soak for one
hour.3. Remove the cobs from the water, shaking each one a bit to remove
excess liquid.4. Place the cobs (still in their husks) on the grill and cook for about half
an hour, turning every 5 minutes.5. When the corn is cooked and cool enough to handle, grab the silks
from the top of each cob and pull them out (they should come out easily). Then remove the husks.
6. Cover the corn with butter, salt, and pepper to taste.
This method works on either a charcoal grill or a gas grill. You can even cook these cobs on an open fire. In all cases, though, be sure the cobs are placed on a raised grill and not directly in the coals or flames.
Our parents and grandparents came of age during an era when some-one could start at a company right after graduation and reasonably expect to stay there until retirement. Not everyone followed that career path, of course, but this practice was so widespread that you probably know at least one person who spent an entire career at one company. But today, most people move among several different jobs during their lifetimes, and the person who stays at one place for more than a few years is practically an endangered species!
Some companies see this shift as evidence of decreased employee loyalty. Staffing experts bemoan the fact that employees are con-stantly on the lookout for “the next, better opportunity” and rarely stay long enough for companies to recoup the investment in training them. Millennials are particularly singled out for such criticism, but job hoppers come in all ages and have many motivations for seeking new positions.
Those same companies that complain about the lack of employee loyalty often forget, though, that loyalty goes both ways. Thanks to downsizing, outsourcing, and rapid technological shifts, even when employees want to stay with an organization, they often aren’t able to do so. “Why bother making a huge effort to retain workers,” some of those companies say, “when they’re just going to leave anyway?”
The result is a sort of stalemate: employees aren’t loyal to compa-nies . . . because the companies aren’t loyal to employees . . . because the employees aren’t loyal to companies . . . and so on. Consequently, a company that wants employees to stay for a long time has trouble finding them, and employees who want a company that will take a long-term view of them can’t find it. Employees lose out on opportu-nities for professional development, training, and job security. And companies lose out on skilled and motivated workers.
Want your employees to stick around? Stop treating them as eas-ily replaced commodities and start treating them as valuable assets. Make it clear that you want them to succeed (and not only because their success correlates to your firm’s success). Let them know that you notice—and appreciate—when they do excellent work and that as long as they do good by you, you’ll do good by them.
Shift your thinking forward: rather than assume that an individ-ual will be working with you for only a brief time, approach training and placing that person as if he or she is going to be a long-term employee. Always remember that today’s temp could be tomorrow’s permanent hire—or a lead on future referrals.
Mike McKerns, SPHR, is the editor in chief of HR Insights and cofounder of Mamu Media, LLC. He can be reached at [email protected].
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